It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
~Theodore Roosevelt
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
~ from Jeremiah 29
Oh beloved, it is true. Though we have the hardest time with it. We have a problem with humility. We are drenched in pride. And the pride covers us on both sides of the spectrum. But, unless we break free and get real, we are doomed to live in a grey twilight of powerlessness.
First, we want to reject the preamble to the Gospel. We are told (and want to believe) that we are not that bad. In fact, if we just look a little deeper inside ourselves, we are going to find everything we need to pull things off and do life the way we think we should.
But, the lie is just that. We are so convinced of our inner riches, that we miss the truth. We are poor in spirit. Apart from Christ’s Spirit, our inner man is inanimate. We are dead in our sins – and no amount of positive talk or positive thinking is going to change this.
On the other side, there is an even worse problem for the believer. In being made alive in Him, we have become a member of a Royal Family. We are the priests of G_d almighty. We are destined to reign with Him forever and ever. We are to become powerful beyond measure. We are, says His Word, going to participate in the very Divine Nature. And what we will become is like Christ… Not just a little. No, just like Christ.
But, just as becoming poor in spirit was the gateway to us becoming rich beyond measure, the liar wants to pull us back into a different form of poverty. The devil (the adversary) will tempt us back into the same pride that kept us from moving forward. The pride just takes a different tact.
We see our failures in the flesh, and we listen to the voice that is telling us that we will never be any different. There is no way that we are the co-heirs and co-regents of the coming Kingdom. And in listening to this voice we think we are being humble. But we are not.
Can we see it? Pride keeps us from moving forward. Pride keeps us dead. Pride keeps us from taking a proper account of who we really are: Apart from Christ we are fallen and broken and doomed. And in Christ, we are raised up, and healed, and anointed as royalty. Any other view than this is faulty, and will doom us either to hell, or to a hellish existence in this life – that bears almost no fruit for forever.
So, are you thinking you are good enough to face judgement day on your own merits? Good luck with that. You will not make it. However, are you trusting Christ alone for your stance on That Day? If yes, good!
But are you, this believer, still believing that you are nothing? Good luck with this as well. You are gravely deceived and prideful beyond usefulness. You believer, are part of an enterprise that cannot fail. You believer, have been given a Great Commission and everything you need to pull it off. You are amazing beyond measure. You are a delight to your King!
What if we let go of the pride and simply took account of who, and Whose, we really are? Could this fool of a writer preach for a sentence or two? We would become exactly what we are newly created to be. We would become powerful and loving and free and good. And in all of this, our lives would change huge numbers of people around us for eternity.
So, are you dealing with pride? We all do. There is an antidote. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to believe and live and take a proper account of exactly who you are in Him.
